Alphabet: Sundar Pichai takes over from Google co-founders as CEO | News | DW | 03.12.2019

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Alphabet: Sundar Pichai takes over from Google co-founders as CEO

Larry Page and Sergey Brin will remain employees of Alphabet and retain their seats on the board, but Sundar Pichai will now oversee Google's parent firm. Page and Brin created the internet giant 21 years ago.

Google and Alphabet Inc.

Google chief Sundar Pichai was named Chief Executive of parent company Alphabet on Tuesday, during a reshuffle of executives.

Pichai will take over at Alphabet from Larry Page, a co-founder of Google. Alphabet was created through a corporate restructuring of the empire in 2015.

Sundar Pichai

Incoming Alphabet chief, Sundar Pichai, was lauded for his work as Google CEO

Google co-founder Sergey Brin — who was Alphabet's president until Tuesday's announcement — and Page "will continue their involvement as co-founders, shareholders and members of Alphabet's board of directors," the company said.

Fleeing the nest

They announced the news in a Google blog post, stating the company has "evolved and matured" since the pair founded it in 1998.

"Today, in 2019, if the company was a person, it would be a young adult of 21 and it would be time to leave the roost," they said.

  • Microsoft-Chef Satya Nadella bei der Vorstellung von Windows 10

    India's global CEOs

    Satya Nadella

    Born in Hyderabad, India, Satya Narayana Nadella became the CEO of the US technology giant Microsoft in early 2014. After completing his Bachelor's in India, he went to the US to pursue higher education in Computer Science. Nadella had worked with Sun Microsystems before joining Microsoft in 1992.

  • Sundar Pichai Google Manager USA

    India's global CEOs

    Sundar Pichai

    An Indian Institute of Technology alumnus, Pichai is the new CEO of Internet giant Google. The Chennai-born soft-spoken Pichai joined the company in 2004. Larry Page, one of Google's two founders, said this in his recent blog about Pichai: "I feel very fortunate to have someone as talented as he is to run the slightly slimmed down Google."

  • Indien Indra Nooyi

    India's global CEOs

    Indra Nooyi

    Nooyi has been the CEO of PepsiCo - the second-largest food and beverage comapny in the world by net revenue - since 2006. She has consistently ranked among the world's 100 most powerful women. Like many others, she attended schools and colleges in India before leaving the country for higher education in the US.

  • Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen

    India's global CEOs

    Shantanu Narayen

    Like Microsoft's chief Nadella, Narayen is an alumnus of the Hyderabad Public School. He is the CEO of Adobe Systems. Narayen started his professional career at Apple.

  • Rajeev Suri CEO Nokia

    India's global CEOs

    Rajeev Suri

    Nokia's CEO Rajeev Suri went to the Manipal Institute of Technology. He became Nokia's boss after the sale of Nokia's phone division to Microsoft Mobile was completed.

  • Ajay Banga CEO MasterCard

    India's global CEOs

    Ajaypal Singh Banga

    Ajay Banga has been in charge of MasterCard since 2010. An Economics graduate from Delhi University, Banga did his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

  • Ivan Menezes, CEO of Diagio

    India's global CEOs

    Ivan Menezes

    Another graduate of the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, Menezes is currently CEO of Diageo, a multinational alcoholic beverages company.

    Author: Zahidul Haque


Read more: Where's the moon? And other things Germans asked Google in 2018

Both founders will remain on the board, promising an active role, and praised incoming CEO of Pichai for his leadership of Google.

According to an Alphabet SEC filing in April, Page holds 42.9% of the company's Class B shares and 26.1% of its voting power. Brin holds 41.3% of the Class B shares and 25.2% of the voting power.

Watch video 02:18

Google promises better data protection

jsi/aw (AP, AFP)

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